11 Apr 2008

Heidi's presentation on the GA conference on Green Growth & Green Jobs:
1. What are green jobs? Do we need to define them? Some worry that the definition will be too narrow and the "results" from studies showing the potential for green job growth will show that it is small. MA asked whether jobs would be coded for product and process so the workplace environment, for example, is good as well as the product produced. JB said we need to think about the appropriate denominator. Jobs per...$, kWh, MtCO2e? MA pointed out that more labor is a cost in cost benefit analysis - why is it better that a program creates more jobs? JB talked about the shadow wage: wage*(1-unemp rate). HT: maybe most effective argument is just that green growth won't hurt the economy. JB: point out that unemployment rate set largely by macro policy, so green policies shift type of employment but not numbers.

2. Raising price of carbon and/or lowering cost of renewables? HGP said that industry reps there thought market shouldn't be interfered with because creates uncertainty. Didn't totally understand why that would be their viewpoint. JB: everyone would be for lowering cost of renewables. Questions is at what price and who wins and who loses. Said most politically tenable solution may be to redirect FF subsidies, but can't figure out wha the magnitude is. Bingaman's office said $20 billion annually. Hillary says $50 billion. JB: very little research on how elasticity of demand (for energy?) varies across income spectrum. There is a study of fuel use and auto ownership in the UK. Possible that elasticity is higher for poorer people, and may make carbon pricing less regressive, but should think about how cutting back affects quality of life. HGP: Need to think about what sort of border adjustments necessary to make carbon taxes politically feasible. JB: Illegal under PPM rules of WTO. Probably wouldn't affect competitiveness much. Hasn't seemed to in EU. [HAS anyone researched this?]

3. Nuclear/CCS
Long discussion of nuclear, but didn't write much on this. JB: Need to stop all new production and direct lots of money into figuring out how to deal with waste. If that question can be answered, then can start generating again. Also mentioned the value of resilience (gained, for example, through dist gen) and lack of attention to it among economists. MA: Erin Baker consulted experts in area of CCS and they implied that it will be relatively cheap to make it operable. [WANT to get her notes.]

4. Public Role
Consensus that we need massive energy efficiency project. [HAS demand for energy gone up linearly with GDP?] Discussed need for regulation - people don't pick up on market signals, short-sighted. MA: lots of topics in applying behavioral economics to environmental decisionmaking - behavioral case for regulations]. JB: Not just market-based vs. regulation vs. public investment. Need all three. [DISSERTATION topic: what is appropriate role for each?]